For our Documentary assignment we have to create and plan out our own documentary that will last 7-10 minutes. It can be on any topic we choose and can also be any type too.
Biography
Going into Documentary I had a really positive look on the module because I enjoy watching documentaries and have always been very keen on making one but never have done. I had an idea going into the documentary module as I have always wanted to make a documentary about my own adoption and I knew this module would allow me to do this. Even though I have always wanted to do a documentary about my own adoption, I will be open to other ideas that come in my direction.
With my documentary I hope to gain more knowledge and understanding of this type of film as I have not created one like this before. I hope to learn what type of documentary format is my style of film making and I hope that I create a piece of work that I am proud of and about a subject I am passionate about.
My interests are reading novels and watching Tv as well as writing stories. I think this module will take me away from what I’m used to interest wise and really make me step into the real world which I am very excited about. I have always been interested in making a documentary in the process of my adoption as I could learn about it too whilst informing other people too.
Class Activities
In our first lesson we were paired up with someone we didn’t really know and had to learn about them. When we had learnt a few things about them, we had to pick something about them that we would make into a documentary. The point of this activity was to get the idea that everyone and everything has a story and it’s easier to get a documentary from something than you think.
One of the first things we did in one of our classes was to look at different types of documentaries. We were given a sheet of paper with names of documentaries on it and had to see which ones we knew and didn’t know. For me, I only knew one which was Personal Documentary as it says what it is in the name. When we had had chance to look at each type of documentary we slowly went through them in detail so we all understood which types existed. I think this was a good first insight into the module because as film makers we have our own types of film making, and looking through these types of documentaries showed us the other types out there and the ones that were closest to our type of film making.
One lesson, Toby from the Media Factory came into the class and gave us a tutorial/refresh on the equipment we could use for our documentary assignment. He gave us an in depth talk on lights and showed us how to set them up. Once the he had set the lights up he gave us an in depth talk on the NX3 camera on setting it up and the techniques we could use. He gave us a brief overview of the sound zoom, but said we could get in touch with someone for a more in depth showing on it. Once we had been shown the equipment, we were put in groups and sent out with the cameras to practice on them with the techniques. Our group and went out to a deserted park and we focused on showing the theme, loneliness. I think this was a good activity because it gave us some practice of using the cameras, after not using them for months.
Another activity was to find newspaper articles or magazine articles that we thought made good stories and could possibly be converted into a documentary. I found a newspaper article from The Guardian that was about hard to place children in the UK and the difficulties of finding adopters. I picked this article out because I have an interest in adoption as I was adopted and find different scenarios very interesting. We had to bring them into class and talk about what we had found and discuss why we think it would make a good documentary. I think the article I found would make a good documentary as it would make people realise that there are so many kids that need adopting and it is an option to those who want kids or people who are considering adoption anyway.
In one lesson, we were given a proposal that a past student had written about their idea. In pairs we had to go through their proposal and pick out what was wrong with it. There were may things wrong with the proposal like in the first paragraph it didn’t tell you what they were making it just gave you facts. I think this was a good activity to do in class as we learnt what to put in our proposals and what not to put in our proposals.
Frozen Planet – 2011
Frozen Planet/Blue Planet and Planet Earth are the documentaries that really got me interested in any type of documentary. The way they use the music with the animals to make it more action packed or to show how lovely something is on screen is magical. I think the Frozen Planet series and the rest of the David Attenborough series’ did so well because of the wonderful cinematography as well as the music. It also did massively well because the documentary isn’t just showing us things that we would never have the chance to see but also teaching us about them.
Man on Wire – 2008
The Man on Wire film documentary was another one that really started my interest in documentary. I loved this documentary because of the story it told, as the set up was really like a story plot. It tells of a man who is a tight rope walker and who plans to do his biggest tight rope walk ever – between the twin towers. The story is about him working his way to be able to do this stunt without getting caught before actually doing it. I think it is done so well as it consists of interviews with people who knew him and experienced what he did, himself narrating the story with lots of passion and archive footage of what he actually did and the things he did leading up to it. The excitement that comes with it is the danger of the stunt his is doing because he is doing across the twin towers and he is doing without any protection or safety so if he makes a mistake he could fall to his death. I think the music works really well in the documentary too as it gives it a proper feel of excitement and danger.
The Imposter – 2012
The Imposter is another documentary I have watched in my past which I really enjoyed because of how clever the story was but how wrong it was also made it intriguing. One thing I noticed about the documentary was that everyone who was interviews was looking off the camera, talking to someone behind it like any other documentary, but the bad guy of the documentary is looking straight into the camera. I liked this as it makes you feel like the bad guy is talking to you and they want you to make your own decision about him. The interview shots are also different because everyone has a background of their home/work environment and the bad guy has nothing but a blurred wall which shows he is a mystery. As well as this, he does not have any title when he comes onto the screen like the other interviewees do. In this film they use reconstructions which I really like because they make you feel like you’re actually watching what actually happened even though you know you’re not. I think this documentary is very clever because the way they set it out with having the bad guy looking at you when talking and the reconstructions from his point of view, it’s like the film maker wants you to experience his lies to you can really understand and have sympathy for the family who believed all his lies.
Initial Ideas
Adoption – As I was adopted when I was younger I have always been keen on making a documentary about my adoption as I always have found it interesting and think others would find it interesting too as I always have people asking me questions. Seeing as the length of the documentary is only allowed to be 7-10 minutes long I was thinking about going into what the adoption process was like and what effects it had on the family that took the kids on and the kids themselves.
I think this documentary would be good because it informs people about the process of adoption if they are thinking about doing it and will teach them what they will have to go through. A problem I came up with about it is the fact that it is quite a personal documentary to make and I might get too emotional in the process.
Fly on the wall in a B&B – As my mum owns a B&B I thought it would be interesting putting cameras all around my own house to see what guests to the B&B are like and the family life around the B&B too. This idea came to me once when I was watching ‘The Hotel’ on Channel 4, where you can see the inside and outside of the hotel and the stress and conflict that comes with it.
I think people would find this documentary interesting as it is a little bit different to The Hotel because of the family element, and the lack of employees. I think people would find it amusing too as some of the guests that come to the B&B can be very different and can cause a lot of chaos. Problems that I can see myself facing with this documentary are the possibilities of getting lots of little cameras/go pros around the house and having access to them for a long period of time. Another problem would be making sure that everyone who was being filmed would agree to me using the footage, especially if kids are involved.
Life of a Fire Fighter – My sister as recently become a fire fighter in North Wales and I thought it would be a very interesting job to go behind the scenes of. Not just to see all the practical bit but how the whole system works, the bit that you can’t see. My idea would be to follow my sister around whilst working with a camera and interview her and other people about what they do. I would film what they did and then talk to them about what happened and their thoughts would be narrated as it happened on the documentary.
I think people would want to watch this documentary as it is a job where people save lives and it is exciting and different to lots of people and their jobs. The problems that would be faced are getting access to behind the scenes of the job and the hectic situations that I could end up filming might not end up being allowed to be used.
Paraclimbing Scout – I know of someone who is a visually impaired paraclimbing scout who won a gold medal in it. My idea is to talk to her about when she found out she was losing her sight and what motivated her to keep going and do well.
I think people would find this interesting as she is very young winning a gold medal and the fact that she is young and is visually impaired. The problems I could face with this documentary would be the fact that this girl has a very busy schedule with her paraclimbing and her job, that I would struggle to get her to find time for the documentary.
Gymnastics – My final idea would be about Gymnastics as my dad runs a successful gymnastics club for girls where they enter lots of different competitions across the country. I would have my dad as the main protagonist of the documentary and maybe three gymnasts who I would mainly focus on. I would focus on gymnasts of different ages as they are able to different things.
I think the main problem would be to be filming children again as I would have to get their permission as well as their parents and the gym club would have to go out their way to sign forms for my documentary. I think this could be a good documentary and if I find the right gymnasts and it is okay with the gym club, I think it could make a very good and interesting documentary.
Final Idea
After looking at all these ideas and looking at the pros and cons of each one, I think for this assignment I am going to work with the Adoption documentary as it is the most practical one and it is the one I am most passionate to do and so I think I will get the best results from this one. On the emotional side of things, I could get emotional but I do not think it will be to the point where I can’t do the documentary. In the documentary I will be talking to my adoptive sisters and parents about how they found the process of adoption and how it has effected their lives. I will have images that appear whilst they are talking that relate to what they are saying.
Filming
I organised with one of my sister’s and my parents to organise all in the same weekend but on different days to work with what worked with them. This made my life a bit easier when it came to booking out equipment as I knew I had all the equipment for 3/4 interviews. On the first day, I planned to film my Dad’s interview, but the schedule was really tight as I had a lecture then had to collect equipment and then travel my to my hometown and set up everything to be finished at 4pm. When I got back my Dad had completely forgotten that we were filming and had other things to do. Because of this we rescheduled to the next morning which meant I would be doing his that morning and my sister’s interview that afternoon. So instead of doing my Dad’s interview that afternoon, it gave me time to experiment with the C100 camera as I was still learning how to use it.
The day I filmed my Dad’s and Sister’s interview, it ran smoothly. It took me a while setting up where I was filming and what settings I wanted on the camera but once I had set it up, it went well.
When it came to doing my Mum’s interview a lot of time was wasted by her trying to make her perfect background for her interview shot. Because of this time became tight and her shot ended up being very dark and plain compared to other interviewee’s shots. Looking back now at the shot I am not pleased with it and as I don’t have the time to go back and film it, I have asked to meet with Dan Matthew’s to ask for help with editing it to make it look better.
Another weekend my friend drove me down to north Wales to film my other Sister for her interview. When collecting equipment for this interview I found out that people hadn’t returned their LED Lights so the ones I had booked out weren’t available. I ended up having one LED light with me when filming so we had to film with mainly natural lighting. Because of this this shot looks completely different to the other interview shots and it looks like its from a completely different documentary.
Presentation/Pitch
In one of our lessons we had to pitch our documentaries to the class and had to mention what research we’d done, what equipment we were using, what our initial ideas were and all the other factors that come with making a documentary. I think doing this pitch was a great idea as it taught me how to pitch and I got feedback on what to do better. I said in my pitch that the audience I was aiming for was people who wanted to adopt or wanted to grow their family. My feedback was to make sure that I make sure my audience is a bit wider so I can have a larger audience. My other feedback was to make sure that I make sure that my audience will find the information interesting that I put across and it is not just myself and my family that do.
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I used my PowerPoint to help me out when it came to talk about what I needed to discuss. I started it out with a title screen with my name and a possible name for my documentary. I then went on through my initial ideas and went through the pros and cons of each one which showed how I got my final idea. I talked about the different types of research I had done in for the documentary and then touched on how I wanted it to go talking about structure, locations, logistics etc. Then I talked about what I had filmed so far and what I was planning to do with each shot.
Editing
When I came to editing I went through every single one of my interviews and cut every question so I had them and nothing else between the questions. When I cut all the answers that I thought would be useful, all of them ended up adding up to 40 minutes long. This meant that I had to go through all the answers and be very picky with the questions that I put it so that it would come to 10 minutes. I did this by putting the answers in order and picking who had the best answer for that certain question so then I wouldn’t have four answers for one question. I thought this was a good way to see what would work best as you could make sure that each person had an equal amount of screen time and that the answers were full or interesting information.
Before I went cutting the interviews into bits, I originally started by cropping shots to make the composition nicer and colour correcting so all the interviews would look like they were made for the same documentary. The only interview shot I did not change was the one with my dad in because his composition was good and the lighting was the best it could be.
With my mum’s interview shot the main problem was the LED light reflecting in her glasses but I wasn’t able to sort that out before editing it all together. My mum’s shot was quite dark compared to everyone else’s shots so I needed to make it lighter without making it grainier. This was hard but I got it so the grain was the same and the shot was a little bit lighter without it being obvious that I had changed it.
With Charlotte’s shot I think the colour worked really well and the focus and lighting worked great. I was very pleased with the shot but the only thing that I needed to change was the composition because she was sat on swinging chair and she moved a bit in the interview. So I cropped down the shot a little bit to put her into a better composition. One problem I faced when doing this was the fact that when cropping a video the quality can get worse so I was worried that this was going to happen. Thankfully it didn’t do this because I did’t need top crop it massively.
Danielle’s shot was really nice lighting wise. The only problem with the shot was the fact that her shot was so light compared to everyone else’s so I needed to darken it a little. I did this but not too much, and I think it fits in the documentary very well.
Chantelle/Shannon in the Atlantic – St Jean de Monts
Shannon and Chantelle, Saint Jean-Plage
When editing the videos together and making sure it was in the time frame of assignment brief, I had to add titles and and images over the video footage. I was planning to have video overlapping the interview footage but the timing I had with other assignments and all the paperwork, I wasn’t able to fit it in, so I went looking for pictures. Thankfully my dad took many pictures of myself and my sister growing up so it wasn’t too hard to find any. A majority of the pictures I picked were images of myself and Shannon growing up as that is what the documentary is about. I also got pictures of my adoptive sisters and my parents with and without so there was a range. I also went out of my way to find a family picture of them before they got us and then one when they did have us.
When it came to choosing the font and the colour for the titles, I decided the colour white would work as the interview shots were quite dark so they would end up standing out when introducing who is talking. The font is quite formal as I thought it would work for a documentary vibe and to show the formality of the topic.
When I planned out my documentary, I planned on having a few different clips at the beginning that related to the documentary whilst having myself narrate the back story of the adoption so then the audience would understand what was going on when the interviews started. Because of timings with having everything at once, I had to discard this idea, and I just started mine out with a small amount of writing on the screen. I think this worked well, even though is was my back up plan.
For the ending credits I planned on having the credits appear on an image of the family or the siblings all together as the film is all about family in the end.
Documentary Showing
For the Documentary showing I had to upload my film to YouTube and caption it all. Thankfully, YouTube already captioned most of it, I just added punctuation and corrected a few small errors and mistakes it made.
When it came to the showing we had to go up and introduce our film. I went up and introduced my film by saying it was a personal film and that I cared about the film a lot. I said that I am planning to create a longer version of the film which will be more in depth too.
The feedback I got from the film was really good. My plan was to make people feel happy emotions when they watched it as I enjoy making people feel something through film. I was told that some people shed a tear or some people nearly cried because of how happy and nice it was. I don’t think I could have got better feedback as I got exactly what I wanted out of it.
Evaluation
For this assignment I was assigned to create a seven to ten minute documentary. I was very excited by the idea as I had never created a documentary but always wanted to make one. We were allowed to work in pairs or by ourselves and I decided to work by myself, so I could really see what I could do.
I had quite a few initial ideas to begin with when it came to thinking of a concept. I thought about doing one about my mum’s B&B as a fly on the wall documentary but the aspect of using so much equipment over a long period time didn’t seem realistic enough. Another idea I had was to make a documentary about my Dad’s gymnastic’s club and how the whole system works, and what age certain girls were and what level they were at that time. I finally came to the idea of doing it about the process of adoption as I was adopted and I really wanted to learn a lot about it as well as show others about it too.
Once I had decided on my idea, I spoke to my parents about the process so then I knew what I was focusing on, as well as knowing what I could fit into a ten minute documentary. They gave me some documents to read about my adoption that were very in depth. These documents really helped when it came to understanding the process. I then spoke to them about what I would and they would feel comfortable talking about on camera and from that conversation I came up with a list of questions that I could ask them and my sisters about the process and their experience.
I looked into different documentaries as research to see what aspects I could take from them. Looking at ‘Stories We Tell’, I liked how raw the footage was, which made me want to have my family being on screen and being themselves instead of being all professional. Whilst looking into other documentaries I realised how much I like interview shots where the composition is good with the person on one side of the screen talking to someone off screen. I realised that as my documentary is full of information I didn’t want too much going on in the documentary apart from interview shots and some cutaways.
After looking into different types of documentaries and talking to my family and looking into documents, my plan was to create an interview based documentary with some filmed cutaways and images too.
Seeing as I had an very good image of what I wanted to do in my head I started organising filming dates with my family and got the equipment organised for the dates that were agree which were late November and early December.
I organised to meet with my parents and one of my sister’s first as they were all live in the same area. The day before I practiced setting up the camera and lights for the interview so I knew what I was doing the next day when having to set up for it. My Dad was first to be filmed, so I set up his shot in front of his bookcase full of his maps so then it showed what type of person he was and that he was in his environment. I sat him on the sofa and sat on a chair across from him. I think this interview ran smoothly, as he smoke clearly and made lots of sense.
I then went on to film my sister Charlotte, who I filmed in the same room as my Dad but in front of some curtains as I thought they would make a good background. Initially I was going to travel to her house to interview her but she arrived to my parent’s house as she didn’t want me putting all my equipment in my car and then having to set it all up again. I sat her in a chair that matched well with the curtains and set up the rest. I think this interview went well. The main problem I faced with her shot was that she was in a chair that moved from side to side. This meant that when I had set the shot up she had moved whilst I wasn’t behind the camera so I didn’t notice that the composition had changed. I also noticed after filming that she had been moving on the chair in some of her answers whilst recording which didn’t look very good.
I filmed my Mum’s interview another day but we ended up filming late in the afternoon as she was busy with work. This automatically rang alarm bells as I had to go back to Preston that evening so I had to get it filmed fast. I set up the lights and sat my Mum down on as sofa. I set up the sound and then we started filming as time wasn’t on our side. The interview ended up lasting 40 minutes as she spoke a lot so I left it feeling pretty happy as I knew I had a lot to work with.
When I came back to the footage to look at it I was very happy with my Dad’s sot as the composition and background were really nice. I saw on Charlotte’s that I needed to crop the video as the composition was out because of the chair. When coming back to my Mum’s shot I realised that there was a massive LED panel reflecting into her glasses. I was very upset about this because I knew I should’ve taken a little bit more time angling the lights to prevent it happening.
About a week later I had planned to go see my sister Danielle who lives in Wales so I could interview her. My friend Jason drove me down to see her and helped me with the equipment. I went to her house and everything ran smoothly. The only problem that I had was that I had booked three lights out from stores but when I went to collect them they only had one available so I had to work with one light. Thankfully the day I filmed Danielle it was quite sunny outside so we mainly relied on that. When looking at her footage afterwards, I was very happy with the quality of the shot as well as the lighting and composition.
When it came to editing I contacted a guy called Dan to help familiarise myself with the editing software as I hadn’t edited in ages. He helped by showing me how to crop a video down. He said that the only way I could sort out the light in my Mum’s glasses was in after effects which I would have to do after the whole film was finished. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fit that in, so I knew that I had to deal with the light in my Mum’s glasses.
For everything else, I brightened by Mum’s shot as it was quite dark compared to everyone else’s, I darkened Danielle’s shot as her was very light as I was relying on natural light and cropped Charlotte’s as her composition was a bit off. I then edited everything together to make a 15 minute documentary. It took me then an hour and a half to get my film from 15 minutes to just under 10, as everything that was said was very important to the story.
As the editing process ended up being longer than planned, I didn’t get any cutaways filmed for it, so I had to rely on images that my Dad had taken in the past. Because I hadn’t had time to film any cutaways, I didn’t get chance to narrate some backstory to begin with. In the end I had to just use white text on a black background to give the audience some backstory.
Overall, I am pleased with this film. I think that what everyone says flows well together to make a good story. I think because it is so full of information that the simplicity of the documentary itself actually makes it look really good. At the film showing of it, I had two people say it made them shed a tear and afterwards I have had people tell them it makes them feel really emotional. I think this is the best feedback I could have got as all I want to do with my films, is make people feel something and I think that I achieved that. In the future, I plan to make more documentaries as I have enjoyed this process.
When I released my film, I first released it on my official Filmmaking Facebook page. I did this because then all the people who have liked the page would get a notification that I had posted a new film. This was a good way to start with the release because then everyone who likes my film would see it and then share it with their friends. I then shared this post off my professional account onto my personal account so people who haven’t liked my film page would be able to watch my film too. I also shared it on my personal account because I have a lot of people who I am friends with that fit in my target audience. I did it this way too because I have a lot of people on my personal Facebook compared to my professional, so just in general it would reach more people.
I did this by going onto the effects tab and dragging the brightness option onto each clip I wanted to brighten or darken. It took a while to find the perfect brightness for each clip to make it believable. I did this with the darker clips and I made the brighter clips a bit darker so then it was more equal between al the clips. The reason why the brightness was not amazing in the first scene was because we only used fairy lights as a light source as no other lights were available. If I did this scene again in the future I would make sure I had spare lights on standby, ready to be used if needed.
main character on her bed whilst the narration is happening between the first and second scene as a transition. Then the shot changes so you can see over the character’s shoulder then the audience can see what she is viewing on her laptop. She will be viewing a video of someone coming out on the internet to get some ideas on how to do it herself. The shot after this is an onwards mid shot of the character, shutting her laptop and sighing as she is struggling. It then cuts to another mid shot of the main character stood, the shot is a side/front shot. It then cuts to her looking into a mirror which shows the audience that she wasn’t actually talking to anyone and she was just practicing coming out. It then cuts to a few short shots of different ways she practices to come out, two being mid shots and one being a wide shot.
she pushes the door open to reveal her sister. I am going to have it so when it reveals the sister you can just see her head over the main character’s shoulder but then have a short pan to the right to reveal she has the letter in her hand and that she has already read the letter. I am doing it this way because it gives the audience a little bit of hope that the letter has not been opened until the pan happens. I will then have the freeze frame where the narration will quickly introduce Brooke the sister because it is in a big moment so it will just say “and this is the one and only Brooke.” When the freeze frame stops it will just carry on by the sister starting the conversation about the letter. From then on it will be over the shoulder shots for the dialogue until the last thing is said.
Chantelle Smith 